


Things to figure out

by secreterces5



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Goliad at least had some higher purpose, Goliad deserved better than being a gargoyle, Goliad not reformed but on the brink of starting her path, Good Sibling Lemongrab, Stormo was literally put together as last minute deus ex machina, This is just a lot of talking, and deserves a good life, but this isn’t about him, in an unspecified environment, so did Stormo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23270950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secreterces5/pseuds/secreterces5
Summary: Lemongrab comes to Goliad and they talk about understanding stuff.
Kudos: 9





	Things to figure out

**Author's Note:**

> This first came to be on a Discord server and got me thinking about how Lemongrab at least got a semi normal life in the end. Goliad got shit for not understanding a kid, a dog and a dumb metaphor about a bee, and Stormo got even worse of a fate. Bubblegum really just leaves a lot of people lying in the ditch while trying to protect the majority huh?

When they see each other, for the first time, they get tense. But Lemongrab knows that he’d like a complete stranger to stay a safe distance away from him, so that’s what he does. He sits some distance away from Goliad, watching her carefully. He heard that some creatures communicate a challenge by eye contact, but he also knows that there’s no creature like Goliad and she knows as well. And for just a sliver of a second a feeling blinks through his mind of sympathy over her origins.

Next thing that comes to mind for him is that he’d like a stranger coming to him to explain their reasons for invading his space, so he gives an explanation: “I came to have a talk with you.”

She scoffs, brushing off his efforts to be polite and respectful with a twitch of her grimace. “Whatever Bubblegum wants now, you can go tell her to suck an egg.”

The childish phrase is amusing when used by a being holding such power. The tone of her voice, somewhat provoking and challenging, reminds him of a certain lumpy person, which in turn reminds him again that despite the power, Goliad is also a living creature. Or, she was. Now she’s just as unblinking and still as a gargoyle would be, and only when her fur gets soaked by the rain or flows gently in the wind does it seem like her or Stormo, for that matter, are actual living organisms. Two siblings battling each other because of Mother Princess. Now there’s a slight deja vu, he thinks. But Goliad and Stormo were stuck, never given another chance to learn, to experience live, to be. And this gives him new determination because, well...

“I’m not here because Mother Princess told me to go here,” he says, keeping his voice as neutral as he can manage.

At this, she raises her head slightly in genuine surprise. “Why then?” she asks more to herself than to him as she searches his mind for an answer. She finds jumbles of thoughts that are strange to her, not necessarily because of their content, but more because they form very interesting patterns, and she hasn’t seen ones like these before. She spots empty spaces where there should definitely be memories of his past, but maybe he’s lost them along the way while living one of his deaths. Some seem artificial, not lost in a death, but more likely erased manually, and she can tell immediately who is most likely the cause of that.

He is just a tad scared of her power, as anyone would be, and though he wouldn’t admit it, he doesn’t need to. Goliad knows. But she also knows that he comes with no intention of harming her. And since she has nothing else to do anyways, she fits her middle eye back in its socket and takes only just a step towards him.

He takes this as a cue to ask: “Would you like to talk?”

And the question is somehow overwhelming to her, jarring to an extent she didn’t expect at all, because... why? Because in her short life experience, noone asked her to just sit down and talk. That isn’t her purpose, that isn’t why she is now here, what is the meaning of this?

She is tempted to search his mind again, so she can understand what he’s plotting, but she is also tempted to let this odd little lemon man surprise her, because he bears no ill will and she has been stuck here alone for too long.

So she speaks up after mulling it over: “What would we talk about?”

“Well...” he thinks of what he would like to talk about, and reluctantly says: “Would you... would you like to come back?”

There’s silence for a good few seconds.

“Come back?” She finds the idea silly. “Bubblegum doesn’t want me back–“

“Except she isn’t your only family anymore,” he interrupts. “Aunt Lolly is now back and... I really like her. She’s nice and helps me figure things out when LSP can’t. And I think maybe she could help you figure things out too.”

He can hear remorse in Goliad’s next words: “No. There’s noone who can figure out my things. Only me, who understands these things. And if I don’t understand, they most likely wouldn’t be able to even perceive them.”

Lemongrab looks down at the ground - well, it’s not really ground - under his feet. “Would you like to see what my friends do when they can’t perceive my things-to-figure-out?”

Goliad is skeptical, still. But he closes the gap between them, sits down, and slowly pats one of her big, fluffy pink paws. “I’m here, and I can listen,” he says. “I might not understand, but, maybe you want to just say it all out loud.”

And it is such a puzzling sight to behold, and she’s shocked to find that she doesn’t understand this, if he can’t understand and she told him he couldn’t possibly understand, why would he still want to know?

She’s curious now, curious if telling him will bring any results, maybe something she can later use to understand better how to have control over things.

So, she tells him.

She tells him about waking up for the first time and being flooded with information.

She tells him about learning, and recognizing the one who taught her.

She tells him how she slept, and ate, and slept again, and how somehow the only living creature she knew was always there, as if she never slept. So, Goliad had learned to never sleep either.

She tells him how one day two new creatures arrived, and about a theory she had that now when she had two new guardians, the old one would pass away. From what she’s learned already from the princess’ thoughts, she should’ve died years ago.

She also tells him about her first time being outside and how right away she could vaguely hear many different mind patterns, just like one would hear a passing conversation in the background, but she could her hundreds, thousands of them. She didn’t care for the thoughts of strangers, though, and the only not-stranger was away, so she didn’t much care for their judgement when she did something and they called it bad. She tells him about their odd explanations of things, and right after that, she tells him about how Bubblegum tried to explain control with the bees and the flower, and Lemongrab nods. “That really doesn’t make much sense. Bees don’t care about flowers.”

“That’s what I said!” Goliad says victoriously, but Lemongrab continues:

“But most people are smarter than bees.”

Immediately, she takes offense to this. “Are you saying I’m stupid?!”

He shrugs. “I don’t think you’re stupid. I think you rely completely on logical thinking, but that doesn’t make you stupid in any way. The thing is, though, that you’re vastly different because of this.” He turned to look at her: “And that, I think, is the problem. Not that you’re so powerful, only that you’re too different.”

Even though she wasn’t reading his mind directly, she felt a tinge of sadness overtaking his thoughts. He knew what he was talking about. How intriguing.

“So basically,” she stood up and started pacing lazily, collecting her thoughts, “you’re telling me that I’m here not because I’m objectively superior, but because Bubblegum found explaining things to me too hard? After using one example and making it a metaphor??”

The earl sighed and nodded. “It’s not the first or the last time she’s done this, either. But,” he raised a finger, “it’s why I’m here now.”

She tilted her head in curiosity, her tail swishing from side to side behind her.

“I’ll try find better explanations, if you’d like.”

Narrowing her eyes, she came closer. “Why?”

“Because that’s what older siblings are for,” Lemongrab says, smiling. “My brothers weren’t much good and your brother was made to neutralize you – but if you want to understand all the to-figure-out things, maybe I could be a good brother, because I had to search for explanations before, too.”

He stands up and finds her smiling, although she looks like she’s still thinking everything over. Finally, Goliad nods: “I would like that.”

“Then follow me,” he grins happily right back, and together, they walk... until she’s outside again. And she breathes in, and out, and in again, and _oh_ , she thinks. She’s outside for a second time.


End file.
